A few days ago a popular Chinese sports newspaper called Soccer News screamed 'INJURIES!' on its front page (on Danwei here). The article suggested that several key players of the Chinese national football team were injured and might be unable to play in the important quarterfinal match against Iraq.

But on Friday night all of those players were running around the pitch! One of them — forward Hao Haidong — even scored the opening goal to lead China through a clear 3-0 win over the modest but resolute Iraqi team.

Chinese sports newsapapers are the same as sports media all over the world they're full of shit, a statement that also applies to the TV commentators of CCTV 5, the Chinese national sports channel. Liu Jianhong (pictured above), the China-Iraq match commentator, couldn't help himself being blatantly and annoyingly supportive of the China team. Which is understandable, but a touch of balance would make him sound a tad more professional and perhaps made it possible to listen to him without cringing.

Huang Jianxiang (pictured left), responsible for the match comment during the half-time break, couldn't help himself from being opinionated and arrogant: despite having a guest by his side to help him comment on the match, Huang kept on talking and talking. The other guy coudn't get a word in edgeways, aside from the occasional 'Yes, I agree', 'It was offside', 'He scored a nice goal'.

If you want to get words of wisdom from the horses' mouths, go to Liu and Huang's pages on Sina.com:

http://sports.sina.com.cn/zz/huangjianxiang/
http://sports.sina.com.cn/zz/liujianhong/